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JOBS REPORT CARD – Ben White, author of POLITICO’s Morning Money, previews this morning’s jobs report which is due out at 8:30 a.m.: “Though predicting the reports can be tricky, Wall Street analysts expect the economy added close to 100,000 jobs last month. That would be an improvement over a weak 69,000 in May, but not enough to start bringing down an 8.2 percent unemployment rate that stands as the single biggest obstacle to Obama’s re-election.

-- “No president since World War II has won re-election with a jobless rate over 7.4 percent, a figure Obama is unlikely to reach no matter what number the government reports Friday. Obama is quickly running out of time to bring the jobless rate down with just five reports—including Friday’s—before the election. The report takes on added importance as it will help set impressions of the economic trend heading in the summer vacation season, when voters tend to tune out. Voters also tend to react to conditions on the ground rather than any single headline jobs numbers. And it takes time for a even a very strong jobs report to translate into more steady paychecks and increased consumer spending and confidence, making Obama’s time-table even shorter.

-- “Another weak jobs report of 100,000 or less would play directly into Mitt Romney’s argument that Obama has failed to push the economy onto a stronger track and that it is time to try a new approach highlighted by lower taxes and less regulation.” http://politi.co/MZCCNr

-- Swing-state Democrats are bracing for the new job figures, particularly in Pennsylvania where Obama wraps up his two-day jobs tour today, I write for POLITICO: “‘If we have a report that is similar to last month’s, that would be a cause of great concern,’ Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, who’s up for reelection and will campaign with Obama in Pittsburgh on Friday, told POLITICO in a phone interview. In May, the unemployment rate was 8.2 percent, up from 8.1 percent a month earlier, and the economy added a measly 69,000 jobs. ‘Sometimes the debate in Washington gets too focused on one month’s reports,’ he added, ‘but if there is a trend or even a perception of a trend, that can be pretty damaging.’” http://politi.co/OadzUG

OBAMA MOVES PAST NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND -- Mokoto Rich reports in the New York Times’ lead story: “In just five months, the Obama administration has freed schools in more than half the nation from central provisions of the No Child Left Behind education law, raising the question of whether the decade-old federal program has been essentially nullified. … 26 states are now relieved from meeting the lofty — and controversial — goal of making all students proficient in reading and mathematics by 2014. Additional waivers are pending in 10 states and the District of Columbia.” The law has been out of date for five years, and Congress has never passed an extension, prompting the Obama administration to maneuver around it. http://nyti.ms/LBP1Ex

BOEHNER, McCONNELL PLEDGE TO REPEAL OBAMACARE—AGAIN -- In case you were confused, House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell each wrote an op-ed in the Washington Times promising to repeal the health care reform law. Here’s McConnell’s: http://bit.ly/Oxby8G And here’s Boehner’s: http://bit.ly/Oxbfej And McConnell’s got another one out today in USA Today: http://usat.ly/LYmWW6

LONGER ABSENCE, MORE QUESTIONS FOR JACKSON JR. -- The Chicago Tribune reports: “A week after U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. announced he was taking a leave of absence, his office released a statement today saying his condition is ‘more serious than initially believed’ and he is being treated in an ‘in-patient facility.’ In a statement that contained few details, the office said ‘recently we have been made aware that he has grappled with certain physical and emotional ailments privately for a long period of time.’” It’s still unclear what those ailments are. http://trib.in/MBoqvv

WALSH, ASHLEIGH BANFIELD SPAR OVER DUCKWORTH – MJ Lee reports for POLITICO: “Rep. Joe Walsh’s clash with CNN’s Ashleigh Banfield on Thursday afternoon almost certainly featured the most times the name ‘Ashleigh’ has ever been uttered on TV in a 12-minute span. The Illinois Republican has come under fire for accusing his Democratic challenger Tammy Duckworth — a veteran who lost both of her legs and partial use of one of her arms while serving in Iraq — of talking about her military service too much on the campaign trail. Banfield began Thursday’s interview by asking Walsh whether he regrets his recent comments. ‘Oh God no, Ashleigh,’ Walsh said. ‘I’m not going to back down, Ashleigh, from anything.’ ‘You’re saying this is just a slip-up?’ she replied. ‘No, no, Ashleigh. No, Ashleigh, this wasn’t a slip-up. I don’t regret anything I said. Understand me. Every man and woman who’s worn the uniform is a hero in my book. I’ve said that thousands of times. I’ve called Tammy Duckworth a hero hundreds of times.’ Soon enough, Walsh and Banfield were speaking over each other in a messy exchange. ‘No, Ashleigh, Ashleigh, Ashleigh, Ashleigh, Ashleigh,’ Walsh said at one point, trying to get a word in. http://politi.co/LrS9rb Watch here: http://bcove.me/o0qkk8q6

THE ROGERS REPORT: FARM BILL STARTS PATH IN HOUSE -- David Rogers reports for POLITICO: “The House Agriculture Committee leadership rolled out its vision of a new five-year farm bill Thursday, a 557-page draft that builds on the Senate passed-plan but makes deeper cuts from food stamps while restoring target prices sought by Southern growers. The action begins a long uphill climb for Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), who must contend with tepid support from the top GOP brass and a fractious class of Republican freshmen who have never been through a farm bill debate before.”

-- “Going into next Wednesday’s committee markup, Lucas has a strong partner in his ranking Democrat, Minnesota Collin Peterson. But the Oklahoma Republican is also tacking right and left at once: demanding deeper cuts from nutrition programs for the poor while embracing a greater government role in supporting farmers — something that won’t sit well with tea party conservatives. Congressional Budget Office estimates, released Thursday evening, credit his bill with saving $35.1 billion over 10 years or roughly $11 billion more than what that emerged from the Senate in June.” http://bit.ly/N3Dpvz

TWITTER TRAFFIC -- @SenatorReid: “Today I'm casting a big vote: Bryce Harper for All Star team. Let's send this Nevadan to KC!” (Huddle note: Despite the support of the Senate majority leader, the Nationals’ outfielder failed to make this year’s All-Star Game.)

@AndyBarr34: After our tracker's camera battery died, he asked @CarmonaForAZ about the bump on his leg. The SG diagnosed a hematoma pic.twitter.com/S5My3BGu

McCOTTER TV PILOT HAS RACE, SEX JOKES -- Less than a month after ending his go-nowhere presidential bid, Rep. Thaddeus McCotter had moved on to another dream: writing a TV comedy. The Detroit News’ Marisa Schultz describes the script: “‘Bumper Sticker: Made On Motown’ starred McCotter hosting a crude variety show cast with characters bearing the nicknames of his congressional staffers, his brother and a drunk, perverted ‘Black Santa.’ They take pot shots about McCotter's ill-fated bid for the White House while spewing banter about drinking, sex, race, flatulence, puking and women's anatomy. It features a cartoon intro and closing snippet with an Oldsmobile careening through Detroit and knocking over the city's landmarks. The double-finned car has a Michigan license plate reading: ‘Made on MoTown.’”

--A former McCotter staffer gave a copy of the script, dated October 17, 2011, to Schultz “as evidence of what the five-term congressman was pitching while in elected office and the tawdry humor unbecoming of a public official who had become disinterested in serving the 11th Congressional District.”

--At least two of the staffers featured in the pilot were the same staffers who botched McCotter’s signature collection, bouncing him from the ballot. “The character named ‘Wardo,’ the nickname others acknowledge is used for District Director Paul Seewald, dresses in a matador costume, gets drunk on a whisky-laced Slurpee and runs off stage after puking. ‘Chowsers,’ the nickname for Deputy District Director Don Yowchuang, leers at women's body parts and snaps cell phone pictures of them, goes ‘cougar hunting’ and repeats the line ‘I'm Thai.’ Seewald and Yowchuang received substantial pay increases in the first quarter of this year — 19 percent and 32 percent.”

--McCotter said writing the show was a “cathartic” way to move past his presidential flop. He said he didn’t write the script while at work. The show was intended to be a “train wreck” and wasn’t supposed to appeal to a broad audience. “"The very fact that people wouldn't find that funny and the suffering of the protagonist of having to be involved in it was what was funny,” McCotter told the News. http://bit.ly/OttJfr

GET YOUR FULL REPORT HERE -- Thursday’s Huddle featured two stories previewing the release of the House Oversight Committee’s investigation, led by by Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), into Countrywide’s “VIP” loan program. Here’s the full 119 page report: http://1.usa.gov/Pgp8jz

GOOD FRIDAY MORNING, JULY 6, 2012, and welcome to The Huddle, your play-by-play preview of the day’s congressional news. Please send tips, suggestions, comments, complaints and corrections to swong@politico.com. If you don't already, please follow me on Twitter @scottwongDC. Robillard is @PoliticoKevin.

My new followers include, but are not limited to @AbigailShilling and @arnoldgold1.

TODAY IN CONGRESS – The House and Senate are both out today for the Fourth of July recess. They will be back in session on Monday. The Senate won’t hold its first vote until Tuesday.

SMITH QUESTIONS DOJ’S USE OF DEM GROUP -- The Justice Department has hired Catalist, a voter information firm owned by Democratic operative Harold Ickes, to help prepare its case against a new voter ID law in Texas. The Austin American-Statesman’s Tim Eaton reports Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith is asking Attorney General Eric Holder to either stop opposing the law, or justify the department’s use of Catalist. Arguments in the voter ID case begin Monday. http://bit.ly/MMyC3P

STEVENS ATTORNEY WANTS JUSTICE AT JUSTICE -- The lead attorney in the defense of the late Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) writes a Washington Post op-ed arguing the Justice Department needs to sternly punish the prosecutors who led the improper prosecution of his client: “The department’s failure to punish wrongdoers makes the scandal worse, and the failure makes a mockery of the attorney general’s effort to establish a standard of propriety that the goal of prosecutors is to do justice, not to win at all costs,” Brendan Sullivan of Williams & Connolly writes. “If we don’t learn from these mistakes, we are doomed to repeat this miscarriage of justice. And if this can happen to a U.S. senator in a Washington, D.C., courtroom, it can happen to anyone, anywhere in America.” http://wapo.st/L5mc6w

BUERKLE TO DELIVER GOP RADIO ADDRESS -- The Syracuse Post-Standard’s Mark Weiner reports: “U.S. Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle says she has been tapped by Republican Party leaders to deliver the GOP’s weekly radio address Saturday to a national audience. Buerkle, R-Onondaga Hill, said House Republican leaders approached her Tuesday with the idea of delivering the speech. She had not requested the honor. For Buerkle, 61, it will be her first national speech of any kind in a political career that dates back to the 1980s.” The speech will discuss the health care reform act and jobs. While most Congressional Republicans refer to the law as Obamacare or “the job-killing health care bill,” Buerkle actually calls it “the Affordable Care Act.” http://bit.ly/MZNwju

YOUNG TO CONSTITUENT: “GET A JOB” -- FLDemocracy.com reports: “Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-FL) of Indian Shores had some choice words for a constituent who asked the lawmaker Wednesday if he supported raising the minimum wage, repeatedly telling the young man to ‘get a job.’ After a constituent approached Young during a 4th of July event and asked him if he would support a bill currently circulating in the House to raise the minimum wage to $10 an hour, Young answered that he probably would not. Instead of walking away, however, Young turned to the constituent and asked, ‘How about getting a job?’ When the constituent informed Young that he did, in fact, have a job– one that pays him $8.50 an hour – the Republican looked puzzled. ‘Then why do you want that benefit?’ Young asked, before again instructing the man to ‘get a job.’” http://bit.ly/NppizQ Here’s video of the exchange: http://youtu.be/8ypSvsg-2Tg

PAULS FORGET FED, MOVE TO NET FREEDOM -- Rosie Gray reports for BuzzFeed: “Kentucky senator Rand and his father Ron Paul, who has not yet formally conceded the Republican presidential nomination, will throw their weight behind a new online manifesto set to be released today by the Paul-founded Campaign for Liberty. The new push, Paul aides say, will in some ways displace what has been their movement's long-running top priority, shutting down the Federal Reserve Bank. The move is an attempt to stake a libertarian claim to a central public issue of the next decade, and to move from the esoteric terrain of high finance to the everyday world of cable modems and Facebook. The manifesto, obtained yesterday by BuzzFeed, is titled ‘The Technology Revolution’ and lays out an argument — in doomsday tones —for keeping the government entirely out of regulating anything online, and for leaving the private sector to shape the new online space.” http://bit.ly/N0PJg7

HUCKABEE CUTS AKIN AD -- Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee appears in a new ad for Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.), who is in a three-way primary battle for the right to take on incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Nick Pistor: “Akin's ad, titled ‘Standing on Principle, Leading with Courage,’ targets the church-going GOP base, the same voters who helped Akin win a tightly fought primary to represent Missouri 2nd Congressional District more than ten years ago. And, the same pool of voters whose opinion could be influenced by Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist minister.” http://bit.ly/PexKWy Here’s the ad: http://youtu.be/5TFPs9J2_gc

THURSDAY’S TRIVIA WINNER – John Clark of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers was first to correctly answer that Ron Kovic, the protagonist and disabled Vietnam veteran in “Born on the Fourth of July” hailed from the Long Island town of Massapequa. Lee Hyden pointed out he was actually born in Ladysmith, Wis.

TODAY’S TRIVIA – Huddle reader Norb Trenor offers today’s question: After eight years in the White House, President Andrew Jackson said he only had two regrets. What were they?First to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day’s Huddle. Email me at swong@politico.com.

THE NATS’ LINE – After trailing the Giants 5-1, the Nats rallied late in the game, scoring three runs in the seventh and two more in the ninth for a 6-5 come-from-behind victory. The win completed Washington’s three-game sweep of San Francisco. The Nats host the Colorado Rockies this weekend, with the first game at 7:05 tonight.

WEATHER -- Very hot, very humid, very sunny. According to ABC 7’s Bob Ryan, this will be D.C.’s ninth consecutive day above 95 degrees. Saturday is expected to top 105 degrees.

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